Houses on steroids

The digital age comes home with techno-toilets and smart couches

Seventeen-year-old Jean-Michel Laliberté developed software that can be accessed from a webpage to control most common electrical devices in the home.

Photograph by: Graham Hughes
, Postmedia News

You wake up in the morning and use the bathroom and your toilet performs a quick health check-up and emails the results to your doctor.

Meanwhile, the coffee maker, which has already brewed a morning pot, is talking to the security system so it knows to shut off after you've left.

While you're gone, your heating system monitors the house temperature and lighting.

If the sun is heating up the living room unexpectedly, the blinds know to close themselves to save energy.

When you fall asleep watching late-night talk shows, your couch takes notice and shuts off the lights and TV set.

No, it's not the year 2030. Digital home technology is already here, although it's taking a while to reach the average household.

In Japan, Toto Ltd. has been manufacturing the Intelligent Toilet since 2005. The original version of its digital lavatory measured blood sugar, blood pressure and obesity, indicators related to diseases such as diabetes, says distributor Daiwa House In-dustry Co. The techno-toilet sends its data to a home computer, allowing users to track and graph personal health trends.

"It's programmed to send (information) to each family member's personal computer about each family member's condition. So, if the father's weight is gaining, all the family members know and will judge each other's health," says Kazushige Morimoto, sales manager at Daiwa House California.

The sophomore edition of the Intelligent Toilet also analyzes urine, measuring hormone levels that can help women track their menstrual cycles.

Daiwa House says 10,000 Intelligent Toilets have been sold in Japan since the product launched, but sales are on hold as the next version is in development.

A complete digitization of the home could involve the infusion of touch-screen technology, whereby doorknobs, furniture and appliances are programmed to react to different kinds of pressure.

In May, Disney researchers unveiled Touche, which measures different types of touches such as one finger, two fingers or a palm or grasp.

Lead scientist Ivan Poupyrev says Touche is "very simple technology" that can easily alter real-world objects to measure anything from a simple touch to gestures.

"For example, you can have a doorknob and when the postman comes over to leave a FedEx, he can touch with three fingers to leave a message. Or, if he makes a mistake, he can press with one finger and that would simply remove the message and he can record again," Poupyrev says.

The technology could be integrated into a sofa or blanket using conductive textiles, he says.

"The sofa suddenly can recognize whether you are sitting, whether you are lying down or standing next to it" and then you can connect it to anything in the house from the TV and lights to sound.

Technology that allows homeowners to remotely control lights, heating systems and security is already on the market in Canada.

The Smart Home system by Rogers Communications Inc. allows homeowners to synchronize lighting systems, water and carbon monoxide sensors and alarms to their smartphones to get instant alerts.

"Because all of those things are connected, I now am aware of what's happening in my house. But the kind of the next wave of these things is going to be the automation piece," says Robert Switzman, spokesman for Rogers Communications Connected Life.

He says the next step is getting your home's systems to talk to each other. "When those things are aware of each other's status - things automatically happen."

The technology is increasingly being updated to allow for more device connectivity, Switzman says and the possibilities for event-based programming seem endless; things like getting the blinds to close when a room heats up or turning off the coffee pot when the home security system is armed because you're out for the day.

Seventeen-year-old JeanMichel Laliberté, of Boucherville, Que., was recognized at an international science fair recently for his home automation system, which can be easily configured without a technician, he says.

"You can install it by yourself. You can plug it in the outlet and, after using the software that I made, program it and it takes like 10 minutes to program your system," he says.

His hardware controller system and accompanying software allows users to control their home appliances via the Internet.

"You can control it using a remote control and you can add automatic action like motion sensors, temperature sensors, light sensors and sound sensors about anywhere in your house and make them interact with your house configuration and your appliances," he says.

The high-school student is currently in talks with a local company about commercializing his project.

WELCOME TO YOUR DIGITAL HOME

Automation will increasingly allow appliances in the home to talk to each other. For example, blinds will close when the thermostat reaches a certain temperature.

Doorknobs with touch screen technology will be able to sense different touches. A mail carrier could record a message for the homeowner by using a two-finger touch.

The Japanese Intelligent Toilet conducts a health check-up of users, monitoring blood pressure and body temperature, and can also do a drug test. The digital loo then uploads results to your computer.

A couch with touch screen technology can sense when a user has fallen asleep and automatically shut off the TV or dim the lights.

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